Anachronistic Society Preservation Zones
Summary Predominantly found on Confederate Forerunner Worlds, the Anachronistic Society Preservation Zones create a hedge between the High Technology the interstellar community is born surrounded by and the "Dirt Tech" of ancient humanity. Most ASPs are seeded by humans born fully adult as a cloning programme, then left on the world in a mass exodus to various continents naked and terrified. Others are formed by those who purposefully choose to leave the glittering technology of the Forerunner Worlds behind, joining already established communities or forming some of their own. These societies range anywhere from primitive neolithic cave dwellers to medieval societies, some rare few reaching modern 21st Century standards of living before being "enlightened" that they are not alone - in fact they are part of a galaxy wide network of other human beings - their own ancestors - who purposefully exiled them to live their lives as re-enactments of a people time had forgotten during the Long Dark. Cut off from Forerunner Tech and any kind of outside contact, these ASP Zones are blacklisted for trade or interaction. Ship crashes or landing pirates are intercepted, or dealt with harshly on the ground before the evidence of their arrival is discovered and quickly hidden. Those born in the ASP Zones grow up oblivious that the human species exists on many worlds - most unaware that there are other worlds in orbit of stars which themselves are other suns. Technology is a myth, like magic. Other humans enhanced by Forerunner Tech are seen like gods or mythical creatures, reflected in a few incidents of cross-contamination as legend. Common diseases go untreated and misunderstood. Famine can wipe out whole colonies. Wars are waged over scarce resources. All beneath the watchful eyes of millions of citizens who live "above" them, sworn to uphold their negligence. The Mexam Articles of Confederation argue that humanity has a right to be born primitive and ignorant, oblivious of their place in galactic civilization, free to live and remain unmolested by cybernetic enhancement or the inhumanity of a life where manual labour is obsolete and meaningless compared to High Technology's overwhelmingly means of production. They believe people who choose to leave the glittering world behind for the dark forests and wildness outside the walls of their mega cities have a right to raise entire generations free from interference from those who live beyond the original human condition among the stars. This has led to many instances where Frontier World folk have been abandoned totally as Confederate assets move on to other planets, these people sometimes cut off for thousands of years - a period of time as long as the Earth Roman Imperial Era in the 1st Century to the 21st Century - enough to grow and develop in a cultural and historical vacuum. These people truly believe their planet is where humanity first evolved, and the scientific confusion in the absent fossil record prior to modern times is explained away by religion or wilful ignorance. Then another race of human being - The Serin, Torlan, or the Lantus, arrive in starships that blot out the sun, announcing that this long lost civilization has been annexed as part of a galactic game of chess. They find themselves given a choice by these invaders: to rejoin galactic civilization through education and physical modification, or remain in the dirt. The profound shock can throw industrial civilizations into a frenzy. Primitive people have no means to even understand what that means. This has led the Anactora Peacekeeper Corps to protect the ignorance of these zones until they willfully contact the space above their worlds, then carefully reveal their presence. Until then, any contact, malignant or benevolent, is forbidden.